


Entropy

by Ipomia



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/F, Fugitives, Future, Mystery, Outer Space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:42:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28813620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ipomia/pseuds/Ipomia
Summary: Over the centuries, humanity colonized most of the solar system, establishing massive colonies from Mercury to the moons of Saturn. While civilization flourishes, there still exist places of near-lawlessness where the rich and powerful rule like kings. Places like "The Belt"—an apt nickname for the asteroid belt between the titanic civilization of Mars and the coalition of Jupiter's moons. The sprawling, tiny colonies inhabiting the countless asteroids are only loosely governed by the seat of power, Ceres.Here, in this sea of chaos, Chloe and her motley crew are drawn into a far-reaching conspiracy that dredges up their troubled pasts. As they struggle against the powers that threaten to destroy them, they find the only way to escape the hell that has consumed their lives is to fight back.
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Comments: 15
Kudos: 20





	1. The Girl in the Box

**Author's Note:**

> CW: Gore and references to violence

A modest spaceship floated alone in a field of asteroids. Inside, three women in their early twenties manned the tiny bridge consisting of a trio of seats in front of arrays of floating screens. A couple of other seats sat empty on the far edges of the cramped room. To the captain's left, a woman in a sleek jumpsuit sporting glasses lazily waved a hand at the screens, flipping through them like pages of a book. "Seriously? This is what our lives have come to?"

The dark-skinned woman across from her dressed in a shirt and slacks turned to glare at her. "Hey, Brooke! I'll have you know it was a real pain in the ass getting that salvaged equipment working. It took Chloe and me days to get it up and running."

The woman in the captain's chair, sporting shoulder-length blue hair and a torn-up tee under a patchwork jacket, looked up from her screens. "Eh, I'm kinda with Brooke on this one, Stella," Chloe said. "Fucking hunting for asteroids to mine?"

Stella groaned, turning back to her workstation. "When we get another paying gig, we can do that. But we really need some cash coming in or we're all toast."

"Sorry," Brooke said, redoubling her focus on the task at hand.

"It's agreed. We keep doing this shit just until a big payday comes along," Chloe said, patting the beat-up armrest of her chair. "This old girl can't carry much, so make sure we find a good target. Maybe we'll get lucky and find a 24-carat gold asteroid."

Brooke rolled her eyes. "It's all junk. I'm not picking up anything metallic."

"It'd take a while to get up to speed and park again. Two or three hours," Stella said, pressing a few buttons on one of the screens before her. "It'd eat up quite a bit of fuel, too. Should we jump?"

"Wait!" Brooke said, leaning forward. "Magnetic sensors are getting something."

"Pssh," Chloe said, "I'm sure it's the size of a pebble."

"Sensors say… 18% iron. 13% nickel. 7% cobalt. Holy shit, it's huge! I'm getting an average density of…! This thing has to be mostly high-density metals!" Brooke gushed, spinning her chair in a circle. "I'm picking up platinum, iridium, gold, uranium! We hit the motherlode!"

"Crunching the numbers now…" Stella muttered, staring intently at her screen. "Fuck me! We can't take half of it with us, it's too big. But even if we just take a quarter of it… This thing could net us well over ten million units!"

Chloe spun around, a huge grin on her face. "Fucking seriously? We could finally fix up this old rust bucket and even have enough left over to get Frank off our asses for a day or three."

"Fuck that," Stella said. "We've got tow cables. I say we drag the whole fucking thing to the nearest outpost and sell it. It'd eat up a bit of fuel, but we could totally pull it off."

"Even at a discount, that'd easily double our payday, even with the fuel costs," Brooke said, disengaging her straps to float free from her seat. "I'll prep for a spacewalk."

"Hey!" Chloe snapped. "I haven't given the okay for anything."

Stella turned to her, "You're gonna say no to a twenty million payout?"

Chloe's eyes rolled. "Well, no. But, I… I wanted to say it." She rested her head on her hand.

"Well, go ahead oh, fearless captain," Stella said.

"Ruined the fucking moment," Chloe muttered. Sighing, she turned back to her screens. "All right, Brooke, get ready to go out to secure the anchors. Stella, I'll need you to navigate us to match velocity with the asteroid."

An artificial, masculine voice sounded over an intercom. "Attention: emergency distress signal detected within close proximity."

Chloe gave pause. "How close?"

"Approximately three-hundred thousand miles," the voice said.

"Anything else?" she demanded.

"It's a standard S.O.S. beacon, pulsing ten times per minute. The signal code is being transmitted along with the ship's coordinates, designation, and a custom audio artifact," the artificial voice droned. "Coordinates displaying on first mate's screen. Ship's designation is Heaven Sent, registered as part of the First Church of The Belt's fleet. Replaying compressed audio:"

A sound of static hissed over the speaker, followed by a panicked female voice. "...der attack! They're killing everyone!" Metallic clangs sound in the background. "It's only a matter of time before they breach through to the bridge! Please, if anyone is out there, save us!"

The audio cut out, only to be replaced by the artificial voice, "Message ends."

"Shit," Brooke muttered as she pulled her weightless form along rails back to her seat before strapping in. "Pirates?"

"Fucking sounds like it," Chloe replied. "Bongo, when did the distress signal start?"

The artificial voice replied, "I alerted you the moment the signal was detected, captain."

"Are we able to hail the Heaven Sent?" Chloe asked.

"Whoa there!" Stella interjected. "We send a signal and any pirates will pick it up, too."

"Given how close we are, they'd probably be able to pinpoint our location, too," Brooke added. "Way too risky."

Chloe turned back, looking at Stella. "How about a flyby? We can get up to pretty good speed and get a good look at the situation. If we're outmatched, we just keep going, otherwise, we can double back and help."

Stella nodded. "If they're boarding that ship, they'll be at a relative standstill. They'd never catch up if we were at speed."

"Wait, wait. Are we seriously discussing leaving this payday behind? We'll never find it or one like it again! This thing could cover half the debt!" Brooke said. "What help could we even offer in this dinky piece of shit?"

"Come on, if we could even save one life…" Stella argued.

"Not to mention if there are pirates that fucking close, they'll pick us up if we stick around to grab that asteroid," Chloe said. "If we wanna save ourselves, we need to move, now."

"I call for a vote," Brooke said. "All in favor of hiding in the cold and the dark to mine this asteroid." She held up her hand, but no other hands moved.

Chloe spoke up, "All in favor of doing a flyby to check on this distress call?" She punctuated the statement by throwing her hand in the air.

Stella raised her hand. "I second. It's our safest bet. No point getting that thing tied to the ship only to make us a giant fucking target."

"It's decided," Chloe said, sending Brooke a sympathetic look. "Stella, set course for that signal and get us going as fast as we can without smashing into the asteroids."

"Brooke, when we get close, I'm going to need you to nab as much information as we can gather. Also keep an eye out for any signs of drones, probes, or other ships," Chloe ordered. "We need to know as quickly as possible exactly what the situation looks like."

"Aye aye, Captain," Stella and Brooke said in unison.

* * *

"Sensors picking up two ships," Brooke said. "Heaven Sent confirmed. Emergency beacon still active, signs of minor damage. No signs of engine activation."

"And the other ship?" Chloe asked.

"Also signs of damage," Brooke said. "Looks like that church ship put up a fight. It's marked as the Buzzsaw. No affiliation."

Stella leaned back, looking over at Chloe. "We'll need to make a decision soon. ETA to Heaven Sent is two minutes fifty seconds. Even with maximum deceleration, we'll overshoot already."

"No other ships in the area?" Chloe asked.

"Nothing on sensors, but we're not exactly running a top-of-the-line array here. Any level of shielding or ships idling will just fade into the background," Brooke explained.

"The Buzzsaw, if it is pirate, how would we fare in a matchup?" Chloe asked.

Brooke swiped through a few screens, then cursed as one flashed a bright white.

Bongo's voice echoed over the speaker. "Nuclear-scale explosion detected. EMP impact in three… two… one…"

The ship shook and the lights and screens flickered.

"Fuck me! Run a diagnostic. What just got fucked?"

"The ship's EM shielding held up," Brooke said, clicking through the screens. "If there was damage it was minimal."

Chloe turned back to look at Brooke. "You okay?"

Brooke nodded. "It looks like the explosion centered on the two ships. They've both suffered catastrophic damage." She looked back over at Chloe. "I think the Heaven Sent overloaded an engine and ejected it at the Buzzsaw. Damn. Those nuns aren't going down quietly."

"Hey! We've got direct visual," Stella said, spinning her chair around to face the other two. "We should be able to send a focused transmission."

"Do it," Chloe said, spinning back to look at her screens.

Stella likewise returned her attention to her station. "Channel secured."

Chloe cleared her throat, speaking in a clear voice, "This is Camille of the independent ship Raven's Dirge. We are responding to your distress call. Please respond."

The screen crackled to life, showing a choppy image of a woman in a uniform not unlike a habit. A bit of blood trickled down from her lip to her chin. "This… This is Bethany O'Rourke o-of the good ship Heaven Sent. Bless you, for your concern, but I fear that it is too late. O-our life support is failing." She paused, her fingers pressing a floating screen by her. "I… I'm only reading a couple of life signs left aboard, myself not included. And I…" Her hand reached out, and the image trailed down to show her dress soaked in blood. "I am not long for this world. But, if you could save any survivors… Godspeed…"

The line blinked out of existence.

"God fucking damn it!" Brooke slammed her fist into the armrest of her chair. "We should've gotten that asteroid! Even if we can find that cluster again, who knows if we'll be able to find that M-class rock."

"Hey… we still might be able to save someone," Stella said. "We're approaching the ships now. Should I make a docking maneuver?"

Sighing, Chloe rubbed a hand across her face. "Might as well. Just make sure we're not gonna get caught by another engine fucking exploding. Maybe there's something worth salvaging."

"Okay, I've set a route. We should be able to dock in approximately seven minutes," Stella said as she started to undo her harness.

"Stella, you stay and monitor the situation," Chloe said as she got out of her chair, grabbing onto a nearby rail as she floated up. "If we run into trouble, we need our pilot to get us the hell outta here in a hurry." As she pulled herself by, she tapped Brooke on the shoulder. "Gear up, Brooke. We're going aboard and we're assuming everyone on board is hostile."

"The fuck?" Brooke said, undoing her harness. "Why are we risking our lives for this?"

Chloe stopped at the hatch leading out of the bridge, grabbing onto to keep herself anchored. "Why'd you risk your life for ours?"

Brooke's eyes rolled so hard, her whole head followed along. "Fucking…"

* * *

Bongo's artificial voice sounded, "Connection complete. The pressure differential is negative 0.18 atmospheres. Low-level radiation detected. Consider limiting exposure."

Chloe held on to the door, two pistols adorning her hips, another tucked into her boot, and a few other hidden goodies in her jacket. For her part, Brooke held a shotgun in her hands, a bandolier with shells across her chest, and a pistol by her side. She also wore a backpack, loaded with an array of tools to handle whatever might come their way.

"Ready?" Chloe asked, twisting the handle and disengaging the locks. Brooke gave her a curt nod in turn. A good yank and the door flew open. The tunnel leading into the bowels of the Heaven Sent showed only an engulfing blackness.

Brooke pressed a finger to her shotgun, shining a directed beam of light forward while Chloe clicked a device on her belt, illuminating the tunnel with a flooding light. "Stella. Do you read?" Chloe called out as she and Brooke made it to the other side of the tunnel, a good ten degrees colder than the Raven's Dirge. The life-support systems were already as good as gone.

"Loud and clear. As best I can tell, the bridge went dark a couple of minutes ago. The only thing aboard giving off anything at all is in the cargo hold," Stella's voice sounded in Chloe and Brooke's ears. "Go left, all the way to the end, then there should be a hatch to the cargo hold."

Chloe looked over at Brooke as they pulled themselves along the corridor. "Did you manage to pull up their manifest?"

Brooke shook her head. "Kind of hard to hack a computer system that doesn't have power. I did pull up the history. That ship left from Ida a couple of days ago. Buzzsaw? Same place, same time."

"The fuck? They just follow the Heaven Sent for two days waiting for a good opportunity?" Chloe asked.

"Doesn't feel right. They both had the same destination, too. Ceres," Brooke replied.

As they floated over to the end of the corridor, the duo grabbed the rails to come to a stop. "This the right spot?" Chloe asked.

"You got it, captain," Stella's voice echoed over the comms.

Brooke readied her shotgun as Chloe grabbed hold of the latch. Holding up a hand to let Brooke know to be ready, Chloe slowly opened the hatch. "Is anyone alive in there? We got the distress signal and we're here to help!"

The black nothing offered no reply. Chloe motioned to herself before pointing into the hold, then repeated the motions with Brooke. Brooke gave a nod, and Chloe dove into the hold. Her belt lit up the massive room, casting long shadows over grey crates piled up at the edges of the room and tethered to the walls. Several crates came loose from the explosion, sending them and their contents floating aimlessly in the long, tunnel-like room. Brooke followed immediately after. She swept her gun across, sending her flashlight's beam all around.

"Any life signs?" Chloe asked, grabbing a strap on a crate to pull herself in the weightless hold.

Brooke touched her glasses, illuminating a display on the lenses. "I've got one signature and… something else. Way too much energy for a person." Using her shotgun, she pointed deep into the hold. "They're in the back."

The duo worked their way through the maze of crates and quickly found a floater. A young woman, wearing a black and white dress drifted silently. Brooke's light fell on her face, showing a small hole in the side of her head. On the opposite side, a large chunk of her head was just… gone.

"Who the fuck murders nuns?" Chloe whispered as she struggled to point her non-directional light down to the back of the cargo hold.

They ran into a wall of floating crates, the medical and food supplies gently drifting out from the damaging blast that shifted everything. The debris scattered the lights, but from the other side, they could make out a soft, green glow. Chloe signaled to Brooke as her hand moved to her pistol.

Brooke grabbed the broken strap on a crate, using it to propel herself through the wall of debris toward the faint light. As she passed through, her posture quickly shifted as she brought the shotgun to bear. "Don't even think about it!"

Chloe quickly moved to cover the distance, kicking off the floor to move in. As she passed through the debris, she made out the image of a young woman, pistol in hand. The disheveled blonde glared at Brooke as her hand shook. "Hey, easy now," Chloe said as she drifted to a halt near a machine, lights still active and bathing the area in a soft, green glow. "We're the good guys. We got your distress signal." Chloe nodded over at Brooke, though her free hand remained near her pistol.

Slowly, Brooke lowered her shotgun but stopped short as her flashlight focused on the woman's side, just above her hip. The black and white garb soaked with blood, as the woman kept her free hand on the wound there. "Jesus…"

"Hey, we need to get you to our med bay," Chloe said, fumbling along the machine to get to the woman.

The woman released her pistol, letting it float free as her hand went to her side, pressing on the other. "Sh-she could be in there. I can't leave her," she said, her voice strained.

Chloe turned her gaze back to the machine. There were several displays, on one, a countdown showed with a number in the seven-hundreds. Behind the displays sat a large, nondescript box. "The fuck is this thing?"

"Looks like a cryo-chamber. Give me some light over here. I can at least try to stop the bleeding," Brooke said. "I'm Ryoko, by the way. This is Camille."

The woman nodded. "I-I'm Kate. Kate Marsh."

Chloe grabbed the light on her belt, pulling it away. It remained tethered to her belt by a thin cord. She then gently pushed it up and away, allowing the light to bathe the trio. With the area under the light, Brooke found that the woman had used straps from the cargo to attach herself to the cryo-chamber. "Well, at least you're not gonna go flying away on me, Kate Marsh," she muttered as she adjusted the strap and worked to pull off her pack. Once it was free, she took a cord from the pack and slipped it around her waist to keep the bag from floating more than a couple of feet away.

"Here, Chlo—Camille," Brooke said as she floated the shotgun in Chloe's direction.

Chloe grabbed the gun, using the directional light to help Brooke see. "I got you."

With her hands free, Brooke dug around in her pack. "All right, here," she said, holding a facemask with a cylinder attached to Kate's face before attaching the straps to keep it in place. "You'll need the oxygen more than we will… at least for the moment." As Kate adjusted the mask, Brooke grabbed her thigh with one hand, and jabbed it with a pen using the other. "And this…" she grunted as she struggled with Kate, "will help with the pain."

Casting the spent pen aside, Brooke then pulled a small kit from her pack. She grabbed a couple of things before resealing and placing the pack back in the bag. "Okay, first we're gonna have to cut some of those clothes away, then I'll need to examine the wound, okay?"

Kate nodded. "Okay."

Jamming the scissors into the tear left behind by the bullet, she cut away a good portion of her dress. With the bullet hole exposed, she held out a small plastic pouch. "This is going to sting, and I'll need to keep pressure on it after I apply the coagulant." With that warning, Brooke tore open the pouch and pressed it firmly to the wound before squeezing it.

Kate hissed and whined, but did little else other than follow Brooke's instructions. Once the pouch had been squeezed dry, she simply tossed it aside to float with the rest of the debris.

With the primary concern taken care of, Brooke went back to cutting away the dress to find the exit wound. "Oh, shit," she muttered as she worked around to Kate's back. There, she saw a bulge under her skin. "The bullet didn't go all the way through, but I think I can see it."

Tugging the cord, she brought the pack back and traded out her tools. This time, she held a scalpel and a clamp. "Okay, Kate. I think I can get the bullet out, but it's going to hurt like hell. Are you ready?"

Giving a weak nod, Kate said, "Ready."

Brooke placed the clamp over the lump, torquing it down tight as Kate screamed in pain. "Hey! Stay with me, and keep pressure on that wound!" Brooke shouted as she placed the scalpel on the skin and made an incision. Like a zit, the clamped bullet oozed out of the wound and into the open air with countless tiny droplets of blood. Brooke caught it with her fingers, holding it close to her glasses for inspection. "Okay, looks like it didn't fragment. That's at least some good news," she said, taking the clamp off and moving back to her kit. "All right, one more packet of coag, and we'll have you as good as first aid can do. Don't worry, though. We've got enough in the med bay to keep you going until we can get you to a real doctor."

"Is it safe to move her?" Chloe asked, keeping the shotgun's light steady on Kate as she cast another gaze over at the cryo-chamber.

"Best to give that coag a couple of minutes to set before we try," Brooke warned as she packed away her things and put the backpack on. "But we can't stay long. It's only a matter of time before the life support craps out entirely."

"Is… is she going to be okay?" Kate asked, her gaze set on the cryo-chamber.

Chloe looked over at the pained woman before casting a glance back at the various screens. "I don't think this shit's damaged."

Brooke floated over, edging her way in. "Whoa. This is beyond high-tech." With practiced ease, she flipped through the screens, her eyes darting about. "Everything's intact. Project… Masamune? I'm getting all green on health and vitality. About five minutes before she's ready to wake up."

"Just who is in this thing? Why?" Chloe asked.

"I think… I hope it's my baby sister. She went missing nearly three years ago," Kate replied. Grimacing, she groaned. "I… Had reason to believe that the… the Prescott Corporation had-had something…"

Brooke tore her attention from the screen and to the distressed nun. Kate's eyes rolled up before closing."Hey. Hey! Do _not_ go into shock on me!"

Abandoning the cryo-chamber, Brooke went back to Kate. Retrieving a patch from her pack, Brooke slapped it on Kate's throat before tapping her glasses. "God damn it! Her heart rate's through the roof and I think she's crashing. It can't wait. We gotta get her to the med bay so we can stabilize her."

"Heads up," Stella's voice echoed over the comms. "I've catastrophic news, and we're so fucked news. Long story short, you two need to get out of there ten fucking minutes ago!"

"Help me with these straps!" Brooke said as she struggled to find the buckles tethering Kate to the cryo-chamber.

"Here," Chloe handed back the shotgun as she pulled out a tactical knife and retracted her light back to her belt. "I'll cut her free, but I think we still got a few minutes to wait for the girl in the box."

Brooke attached the shotgun to a strap to her pack and threw the whole mess on her back. "No time for that. You heard Terra, and Kate can't wait, either."

"She'll die if we leave her!" Chloe argued, sawing through the thick straps.

"You'll all die if you don't get the fuck out of there," Stella's voice argued. "The entropy core in the Buzzsaw is already the temperature of a fucking star. That thing is going to go supernova in a matter of minutes!"

"Fuck it, I'll see if I can override the wake-up process," Brooke said as she started working on the machine.

Finally getting Kate free, Chloe pulled her close, prepared to drag her along back to the Raven's Dirge. "Is that safe?"

"Pretty good chance of multiple organ failure and brain damage. But we can't stay. It's this, or she dies."

"Fuck, fine! Do it."

A hiss sounded, along with an alarm as the gentle green glow switched to red, flashing lights. The box's top left with a resounding _thunk_ and Brooke reached inside and pulled the girl inside free. "Let's go!"


	2. Pulse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the Buzzsaw's core goes critical, the EMP devastates the Raven's Dirge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: Major character death

The moment the gang got back aboard the old ship, they strapped in. They decided on the way back through that top priority was keeping the ship and its crew alive. They couldn't save Kate or the girl in the box if they were all dead. As soon as Chloe and Brooke gave her the word, Stella set the plasma thrusters to full and fired up the rocket engines. They only had enough fuel for about a minute of maximum thrust, but that would have to do to get them up to velocity to escape shrapnel range when that entropy core goes critical.

"Hold on! Even with dampeners, when the rockets fire, we'll hit about two Gs!" Stella shouted into the comms as she hit the last button to confirm the rocket thrust. The ship shook as the rockets burst to life, followed by a powerful pull. Stella's body suddenly went from weightless to twice its normal weight as the seat's straps struggled to keep her in place. As soon as her vision cleared from the initial shock, she set her eyes on the fuel gauge as it rapidly drained toward zero. They didn't even make it a full minute before Stella cut the engines as the fuel drained down to a critical 5% value.

"That's all she wrote!" Stella barked into the comms. "Get those two to the med bay. I'll monitor the situation and keep the plasma thrusters at full."

"Copy that," Chloe said. "We're headed for the med bay now."

Stella flipped to a different screen showing several blips. "One more thing, captain. We've got company. A whole fleet of Prescott warships is headed straight for the Heaven Sent. They probably got the same distress signal we did."

"Shit! Have they spotted us?"

"We haven't been hailed, and the courses of all ships converge on the Heaven Sent, so I'd say no. We're probably next to invisible with that core about to go supernova," Stella said, monitoring the blips. "Only a matter of time, though. The further away we get, the more noticeable we'll be, especially with the plasma drives at full thrust."

"Not dying trumps getting arrested," Chloe replied. "Keep those engines going, but cut them completely once we're at a safe distance. I'd rather not get spotted if we can help it."

"I'll keep an eye on the situation and keep you informed, captain."

* * *

Keeping one's cool under pressure was one of the defining traits of a good captain. One Chloe Price never quite mastered. "We are so fucking fucked right now!" she shouted, making room on the floor in the cramped area for the girl in the box while Brooke worked on Kate utilizing the only bed in the bay. Coming out of the cryo-chamber, the woman wore no clothes. Worse, with the sudden awakening, she didn't warm up properly. Her flesh was cold, and more alarmingly, she wasn't breathing. Already her lips and fingers turned a shade of blue.

The med bay was one of few rooms on the ship with artificial gravity, making the whole process a lot harder as Chloe scrambled to get a breathing mask on her. "Okay, I've got this thing on her, what do I do now?"

"Does she have a pulse?" Brooke asked as she set an IV disc, a light grey hockey puck-sized container of concentrated medicine with an auto IV line injector built-in, on Kate's collarbone. "If not, put the defib on her."

Chloe couldn't stop her heart from pounding in her chest. This woman looked so much like _her_. But it was just a fucked-up coincidence. It had to be. She died years ago. And if Chloe didn't get her shit together, this woman would be joining her. Grabbing a monitor, she slapped the patch on the woman's neck. Chloe turned her left arm as if to check the time. Above the inside of her forearm, a screen blinked to life, interfacing with the patch.

"Her heart's beating!" she shouted, unable to contain her excitement. "Uhh… heart rate is 123. Blood pressure 92 over 67. Oxygen level 78%. Fuck. I don't know what any of this shit means."

Brooke, having stacked three more discs on top of the first one, stepped back and tapped her glasses. "Shit. She's in bad shape, too." Grabbing a couple of discs, she handed them to Chloe. "Put these on her. I've gotta get Kate set up for decolonization before her body goes haywire trying to fight the infection."

The auto IVs were built for dummies. On the back, it had a picture of where to place the disc, and a cover over the button used to activate it on the top side. Chloe removed the instructional sticker to reveal the adhesive and stuck it to the naked woman's collarbone. She double-checked with the screen on her wrist, showing Chloe the all-clear for placement. She then flipped off the protective cover and hit the button, causing a brief whirring noise as it pierced into the woman to inject the medicine. Chloe then repeated the action with the second disc, stacking it on top of the first.

The moment it started working, the whole ship shook. Lights went out, and Chloe began to feel herself float. "What the fuck just happened?" she shouted.

No reply came.

Moving for her belt, Chloe activated her light. It struggled to flicker to life. Giving it a good smack seemed to fix it as it shone a steady light. "Ryoko? Terra? Report!"

A bit of static echoed in her ear. "...orry, capt … EMP hit … Comms … the fritz!"

"Ryoko? Are you okay?" Chloe shone her light over to find Brooke floating free, completely still like the other two. "Fuck! Terra, get the systems back online, and I mean yesterday! That EMP hit Brooke!"

_Don't die! Don't die! Don't die!_

With the med bay designed to have artificial gravity, Chloe found herself floating helplessly with nothing to grab onto. Twisting uselessly in the air, Chloe screamed back into the comms. "You have to do something, and I mean right now, or everyone's going to die! I think… I think that Brooke's dead. It killed her… I killed her."

Chloe felt a crushing weight in her chest. This was her call. They'd gone out on her word, and she got them all killed. With all the systems down, the Prescott fleet wouldn't find them before they all suffocated or froze to death. Kate and the woman from the box would've died either way, but Chloe went and killed Brooke and Stella, too.

"I'm sorry," she muttered as she began to cry, surrounded by the motionless bodies. With the systems fried, it would only be a matter of minutes before life support gave out. "I got you into this. I'm sorry, Stella. I'm so sorry."

The black nothing offered her no reply. The comms must've gone out completely. Part of the cascade of system failures as the ship drifted in the endless nothing. Would they even be found? Perhaps, one day in the far future, their mummified remains would be thrown out of the ship's carcass as it was stripped down for the metal.

The only sound in Chloe's ears were her own sobs. The light on her belt flickered again, before going out, leaving the room in complete darkness. "I'm sorry."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are bleak for our intrepid spacefarers. More to come soonish.
> 
> I was hoping to update the Twisted Fate series or at least another chapter of Asylum this weekend, but life just won't stop kicking me in the teeth. I really hope to post something more next weekend. My schedule is finally looking to be at least a little forgiving.


	3. Reset

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the wake of the deadly EMP, strange things happen.

Alone, floating in the dark surrounded by motionless bodies, Chloe called out, hoping that at least some of her words might make it through the connection to Stella, "This… this is all my fault. And I'm so, so sorry. We should've just mined that fucking rock and never come chasing that signal like a bunch of stupid heroes. I… I got us all killed, but you might still make it. Make a call to the Prescott fleet or find a working escape pod. I'm trapped here, but you can make it. Please, go!"

Of course, no reply came. Not even a hiss of static in her ear. None of her words reached Stella, but she knew that Stella was no fool. She'd get out. She'd survive. She had to. "Please… survive," Chloe whispered to the nothing.

A loud, mechanical sound echoed through the med bay as the lights flickered to life. Then, Chloe slammed down to the ground as gravity resumed. "What the fuck!" Her hands slapped at her cheeks, chasing the tears away.

"Is everyone okay?" Stella's voice came over the comms. "All the systems suddenly recovered, like the EMP never even hit. I can't explain it."

An audible gasp reached Chloe's ears followed by a stream of profanity. "Broo—! I mean, Ryoko! Jesus, are you okay?"

"It feels like my insides are on fire, but other than that, just fucking peachy!"

"Are you all right?"

Chloe's head snapped over to see Kate, still hooked up to the table, leaning toward Brooke. "Hey, don't move too much, Kate. You'll fuck up your IVs."

_Shit! That girl!_

Chloe found the naked girl, curled up on the floor. Gently pushing her over onto her back, she breathed a sigh of relief that the IVs were still attached. She pulled up the screen to find that her vitals showed her breathing and her heart beating. "I think this one might've hit her head when the gravity kicked back in," Chloe announced as she saw the bright red of fresh blood all over the inside of the breathing mask. Ripping the mask free with one hand, Chloe used the other to reach into a nearby drawer and grabbed some gauze to clean up her face, but the blood kept pouring from her nose, preventing Chloe from reattaching the mask. She seemed to be breathing on her own now, at least.

"Fuck me," Brooke groaned as she pulled herself up. "Everything says it's fine… functional, at least, but I feel like the Hulk just used me as his personal punching bag."

"Captain, I've aborted the plasma drive startup sequence. We are still maintaining stealth now that the danger is over, right?" Stella's voice sounded in Chloe's ear.

"Yeah, Terra," Chloe replied. "Keep monitoring the situation." Then, Chloe stood and went over to Brooke and Kate. "What the fuck just happened? You're okay now?"

"Yes," said Kate.

Brooke tapped her glasses. "I guess so. What happened?"

"I guess that core went critical. The EMP hit us pretty good," Chloe said.

"EMP? Must've knocked me out," Brooke surmised. "But everything seems fine?"

"I know, it doesn't make sense," Stella replied. "Seriously, I ran a diagnostic, as far as the ship's computers are concerned, the EMP never hit."

"Lynn? Is she okay?" Kate struggled to look over without torquing the stack of IV discs attached to her chest.

Chloe nodded with a grunt, gauze still held to the girl's nose. "One helluva nosebleed. But she's breathing."

"No…" Kate choked back a sob. "That's not Lynn…"

Chloe turned her attention back to the freckled girl. "It's the woman from the damned box. We couldn't have gotten that shit mixed up."

"N-no, I…" Kate shook her head as tears poured down her cheeks. "I thought for sure it was her… Dear Lord, what have I done?"

"Saved some random chick, apparently," Brooke said, adjusting the discs attached to Kate. "And hey, your vitals are really popping back up. I think we're out of the woods, here."

"It's my fault… All my fault," Kate said, openly sobbing. "I was so sure it was her."

Brooke moved back to reexamine the wound. "What…? I'm gonna roll you over." Pushing Kate, Brooke checked her back before abruptly dropping her. The next thing Chloe saw, Brooke had the barrel of her pistol tucked tight into the base of Kate's jaw. "The fuck is this game you're playing?"

"Ryoko, what are you doing?" Chloe demanded, tearing herself away from the freckled woman.

"I don't know if she's a spy, or a con woman, or what. So we need some goddamned answers, and I mean _now_!" Brooke thumbed the hammer back with an audible _click_.

Kate gave the slightest of nods with the barrel of the gun digging into her neck. "After what I've done… I deserve it." Kate raised her hand toward the gun, forcing Brooke to take a step back.

"Seriously, what is your game?" Brooke demanded, both hands gripping the gun as she kept it trained on Kate.

"The fuck is going on here?" Chloe asked, keeping clear of the line of fire. "What is with you?"

"Check her so-called wound!" Brooke barked back.

Chloe went over, pulling at the cut portion of the dress. Even in the bright light of the med bay, she couldn't see the wound. Pulling the fabric this way and that, she found nothing but milky-white flesh, one bellybutton, and the hem of her panties. "The fuck? I saw that hole myself."

"How did you fake that?" Brooke demanded. "I cut that bullet out myself! Your vitals were tanking two minutes ago. How! How are you perfectly fine now?"

Looking back over at Brooke, pointing the gun at Kate as the image of Brooke floating motionlessly in the dark flashed through her mind. "How are you perfectly fine?" Chloe asked, pointing the question at Brooke. "How the fuck did we even recover from that EMP?"

"Got me, captain," Stella's voice echoed over the comms. "I'm going over the data now, but that's really more of, uh, Ryoko's bag. I'm no expert, but the records show the EMP penetrating the shielding, but there's no record of it impacting the hull. And I know it hit everything. We were completely dark for a couple of minutes, and a few systems were reporting catastrophic damage during that time. But when everything came back up… nothing. Not one error or warning anywhere that I can see. That shit should have been recorded in the systems."

"Like it was nothing…" Chloe said looking at the still-crying woman on the bed. "Could we have… I dunno, hit a fucking wormhole or something?"

Brooke groaned. "Wormholes are a theory. There's no evidence of their existence."

"The ship's fine like it never happened. Kate's fine like it never happened. Fuck, you're fine like the EMP didn't wreck you, too," Chloe barked. "Something fucked up is going on here, and it's not just Kate!" She pointed over at Brooke. "Now stow that weapon. That's an order."

Brooke glared at Kate before casting a glance over at Chloe. "Fine," she said with a sigh as she withdrew the weapon, carefully lowering the hammer back into place. "But we treat her as a prisoner until we know she's on the level."

Glancing over at Kate, Chloe's heart broke seeing Kate cry so mournfully for her lost sister. Chloe knew more than a little something about hunting for a lost loved one knowing in her heart they'd never be reunited. "We're not locking her away… But, yeah, we keep her under watch and she doesn't go anywhere without an escort. The other one, too."

Chloe looked back over to the oh-so-familiar woman on the floor. She really did look just like her. "Just what the fuck is going on?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is alive! Aboard the Raven's Dirge, at least. Though some are clearly doing better than others. Things will be expanded upon in the next chapter. 
> 
> Sorry for the short chapter again. Next time, I will be sure to have more than a morsel... though there is no telling when next time might be.


End file.
